(The activities listed on these pages were designed for students
of German as a Second Language. However, a few of the activities may be possible
for other students.)

It
would be best if you read the pages in this website in their German version.
However, if you read a useful page in English first, make sure you then look
carefully through the German version of the page (there's a link at the bottom
of the page). While looking through the German page make notes of important
vocabulary and phrases, as you may find them useful in written and oral tasks
that you may do. Some of the texts in the Primary Sources are certainly challenging
reading - don't worry if you find those ones difficult, just scan the text for
key words and try to get some main points out of it!

1) Reasons for
emigrating to AustraliaIn his book A History of Germans in Australia 1839-1945 Charles
Meyer lists four basic reasons for German emigration:
religion, the economic situation, political motives, and social motives. Using
the Chronology (or die
Chronologie) of German-speaking immigration in Australia, find for each
of these four reasons at least three people who are examples of such immigrants.

2) Role
Play
Read Ludwig Becker's "Ein Australisch' Lied"
and act out with partner(s) a scene from it. Possibilities would be Part 10,
Part 11 and Part 15. You could develop some creative extra lines.

3) Informative
Writing
Reorganising Information: Read Ludwig Becker's "Ein Australisch' Lied"
and, in the role of the immigrant in the Lied, write diary/journal entries about
your experiences, from Part 4 onwards, or just for specific sections of the
Lied.

4) Informative
Writing or Oral Presentation
Research the achievements of a German/Austrian/Swiss Australian and his/her
contributions to Australia in the arts, music, science, education, culture,
sport or politics or any other field. You are a journalist and write a report
for one of the Australian German-language newspapers "Die Woche in Australien"
or "Neue Welt". Alternatively you can make an oral report to your
class.

5) Informative
Writing
Interview a German/Austrian/Swiss Australian, or an Australian of German-speaking
descent. Ask why their family came to Australia and about their experiences
here as immigrants. Present the information as a case study in the form of a
summary.

6) Role
PlayYou are a citizen of the kingdom of Württemberg in 1848.
Another student takes the role of the NSW Government's German Immigration Agent
Wilhelm Kirchner. Kirchner is visiting your
area promoting emigration to the colony of Neu-Süd-Wallis. You are interested
in emigrating, as economic circumstances in the south-western German states
are difficult. However, you know almost nothing about the colony of Neu-Süd-Wallis
and are keen to find out more (ship journey, work in NSW, general info about
the place etc). Kirchner does his best to persuade you of the reasons to go
there.
You may find these pages useful:Warum
wanderten sie aus?Die
deutsche Besiedlung von New South Wales im 19. Jahrhundert

7) Evaluative
Writing
You write the script for a talk that you will present on the SBS German-language
radio program. The topic of your talk is: "The influence of German Australians
and Germans in Australia ended in 1914."

8) Imaginative
Writing
You are a German immigrant in Australia. It's your choice as to which part of
Australia you live in, and whether the time is the 1850s or the 1950s. You write
a letter home to your relatives telling them how things are going for you, and
whether or not you advise them to join you in Australia. You may find it useful
to read parts of the Primary Sources documents
in this website. Or you may be able to get some personal background info if
you know a German-speaker who came here after the Second World War.

9) Imaginative
Writing
You're a bit of a poet, aren't you! You also know that poems don't have to rhyme!
Pick any period in the history of German-speakers in Australia, you're a German-speaking
immigrant and write a short poem either about your experiences or Australia
(from the point of view of a German-speaking immigrant) in general. The poem
will appear in any one of the German-language newspapers that have been published
in Australia since 1847 up to the present.

10) Imaginative
Writing
You are the German-Australian owner of a small business who has lived in Australia
for 30 years when World War One starts. You are put into an internment camp
because a business competitor spread a rumour about you. Your wife and children
are having a difficult time at home without you. You write a journal entry in
your diary. In your diary you record your thoughts about your bad luck and why
this treatment of you and other German-Australians is unfair.

11) Persuasive
Writing
You are the immigration agent for an Australian colony and have gone to the
German states in the 19th century to recruit immigrants. You design an advertising
poster or flyer promoting emigration to your colony. You could produce this
either free-hand or using a computer program suitable for the purpose.
Alternatively you could produce a poster for use in Germany in the 1950s.
You may find the page Informationsquellen für
Auswanderer useful.

12) Interview
Conduct a short interview with a partner where one of you plays Captain Dirk
Hahn and the other plays a reporter in Germany who meets him shortly after his
return from South Australia. The reporter asks him about the trip and why he
helped the passengers the way he did.
You may find useful: Hahns Erinnerungen (available
in English also)

13) Informative
Writing
You are Ludwig Leichhardt (prior to his
third expedition!) or Georg Neumayer (1863).
A newspaper in the German states has heard of your achievements and wishes to
write an article about you. The paper asks you to send them your up-to-date
curriculum vitae, written in German. (You could do this CV-writing task for
any other German-Australian of your choice.)

14) Focus Areas
Here are listed some specific topics which you could focus on. You could present
your information on one of them in one of the following forms: a script for
a talk to your class; an informative article for a German magazine; a computer
slide-show presentation to support a talk; a contemporary letter to a friend.

a) Lifestyles of rural German Australians in
the 19th century.

b) The treatment of German and Austrian Australians
during World War One.

c) Contributions of German Australians to the
development of Australia.

d) Germans on the goldfields in the 19th century.

e) Activities of the 19th century German community
in Melbourne, Adelaide or Brisbane.

f) German/Austrian/Swiss scientists in Australia.

g) The role of the Church in rural settlement
of Australia by Germans in the 19th century.

h) The arrival of the first German immigrant groups
in South Australia.

i) German/Austrian refugee arrivals in Australia
in the late 1930s and 1940s.

(Some of the above focus areas are adapted from materials from the Migration
Museum in Adelaide.)

Curriculum materials on this topic, produced by the Association of German Teachers
of Victoria, can be bought via the online
catalogue in the AGTV website. The materials include Heritage Trails and
listening comprehension kits.